miércoles, 7 de enero de 2009

On his ninetieth birthday, George Bernard Shaw was visited by Scotland Yard's celebrated Detective Fabian. To mark the occasion, Fabian suggested that Shaw's fingerprints be recorded for posterity. Incredibly, so faint were Shaw's prints that no impression could be made. "Well," Shaw playfully declared, "had I known this sooner I should certainly have chosen another profession!"

While he was directing Caesar and Cleopatra on Broadway, Sir Cedric Hardwicke took his son Edward to meet George Bernard Shaw. As they prepared to leave, Shaw turned to address the boy. "Young man, you will be able to tell your grandchildren that you met Bernard Shaw," he declared, "and they will say, 'Who the hell was he!?'"

While visiting a restaurant one evening, George Bernard Shaw and a friend found their conversation drowned by a noisy orchestra. "Could you play something if I asked you to?" Shaw called to the leader. "But certainly Monsieur," the man replied. "Well would you either play poker or dominoes - whichever you like - until I have finished my dinner?

Arnold Bennett, visiting George Bernard Shaw's apartment one day, expressed surprise - in light of the playwright's love of plants - at the absence of vegetation within his home. "I thought," he remarked, "you were so fond of flowers." "I am," Shaw replied, "and I'm very fond of children too, but I don't chop their heads off and stand them in pots about the house."